Tom Barry

Tom Barry (1 July 1897-2 July 1980) was an IRA guerrilla leader during the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War.

Biography
Tom Barry was born in Kollorglin, County Kerry on 1 July 1897, the son of a Royal Irish Constabulary policeman. Barry joined the British Army as an artilleryman during World War I, and he fought at Kut and other battles against the Ottoman Empire in Iraq. In 1919, he was discharged from the army after the war's end, and he was a law student when he decided to become an Irish Republican Army volunteer. Barry trained raw volunteers usng his own military experience, and he was involved in several ambushes of British Army personnel and attempted assassinations of policemen and judicial officials. Barry was a successful guerrilla leader, and Barry decided to remain loyal to the IRA during the Irish Civil War. Barry would lead a column during the war against the Irish Free State, and he continued to serve as an IRA leader during the insurgency of the 1930s, later regretting the bombing campaign in England and the IRA's occasional collaboration with Nazi Germany. In 1949, he published his memoirs, and he died in 1980 at the age of 83.